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Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

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Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order, by John F. Marszalek, is a model biography of possibly the greatest general to emerge from the Civil War. Marszalek gives a very even-handed account of the general's rise from relative obscurity to command the second largest army in America, becoming a hero to most, and the equivalent of Satan to some in the process. Unlike Longacre's biography of John Buford, Marszalek did not labor under a shortage of primary information about his subject. With such a luxury, Marszalek follows the development of Sherman the man, and shows how particular events shaped his future views on warfare and towards the South. Most notably, the author points out his experience in the Seminole War as the basis for Sherman's ideas on war against populations. He also describes Sherman's time spent in the South, and how his friendliness towards its people led to leniency towards them after the war concluded. It would appear that Marszalek was somewhat influenced by B.H. Liddell Hart's Strategy, when describing Sherman's military campaigns. Hart states that he believed Sherman was the best Civil War general because he promoted the "indirect" approach to warfare. On many occasions, Marszalek refers to Sherman's "psychological outflanking" of the enemy and winning military victories without fighting battles-the very essence of Hart's tract. At the same time, the author insists that Sherman was driven by his need to have order in a chaotic world. This is in fact the theme of the entire book, and Marszalek does an admirable job of showing that Sherman fought the war in the manner he did in order to provide order (Union) the quickest way possible. Marszalek stretches his analysis of Sherman's desire for order into his post-war life. Sherman's experiences fighting the Indians, as well as "dalliances" with other women, and conflicts with politicians at caused him great distress because they were disorderly. In the end, Sherman's desire for stability led him on a campaign to provide an accurate history of the Civil War. Though his efforts made him many enemies in the South, his contributions ensured his place in American history, and the order he so desperately desired.

John Marszalek has woven together the threads of Sherman's life better than any previous biographer. There have been great Sherman biographies in the past, Lloyd Lewis' brilliant 1932 offering comes to mind. But Marszalek benefits from new scholarship and a fresh approach in unearthing the passions and limitations of the brilliant and erratic Sherman.

All areas of Sherman's life are explored in depth. The author doesn't stint the reader on details of Sherman's chaotic childhood, the influence of his stepfather or his years at West Point. Marszalek understands the important of Sherman's tortured marriage to Ellen and the consequences that this miserable marriage had upon Sherman. Can anyone blame him for repeatedly cheating on her when her attitudes towards sex approached that of a nun? Especially interesting are the tid-bits on Sherman's lengthy affair with Vinnie Ream, all quite engrossing.

Marszalek strikes a nice balance between Sherman's private life and his military endeavors. The reader never has a sense that the man is sacrificed or buried in minutiae of the battlefield. Sherman was an enigmatic, sometimes baffling man and its hard to get a firm grasp on him personally or emotionally. Marszalek has produced a fine biography and one which will stand as the definitive look at Sherman for many years.

Marszalek has studied Sherman for years, and his biography reflects a comprehensive knowledge of the sources on Sherman. Sherman was a highly complex and intelligent person, fourth academically in his class at West point, though a prankish student who finished sixth in his overall graduating class because of demerits. If you don't know much about Sherman, if you only know he said war is hell and marched through Georgia, this is a good book for you. Sherman's army assignments before the Civil War were mostly in the South, and he loved it, but he hated secession, though he did not oppose slavery. Under Grant's wing he became an excellent general. He believed in a hard war but a soft peace, and opposed the conduct of reconstruction after the war. The only reservation I have is the author may overpsychologize his approach to Sherman: the passion for order theme runs throughout the book. But the book's quality is saved by the mountain of details the author relates about Sherman's life and other's views of him, and by a highly readable writing style. As one of the most important generals in the Civil War and in the history of the U.S. Army, and an important influence on modern concepts of total war, William Tecumseh Sherman (aka "Cump") is well deserving of study, and this biography is well worth reading.

William Tecumseh Sherman was one of the great figures of the Civil War, a visionary whose views on tactics and strategy reshaped the way observers looked at warfare. It's hard not to admire the touchy, angry general. Sherman's armies marched hundreds, if not thousands, of miles across the south, devastated the south's ability to make war, and defeated tens of thousands of Confederate troops. His strategy for the Atlanta campaign and his March to the Sea were brilliant. Few Civil War generals appreciated the destructive power of weaponry of the era, or realized that total warfare was the only way to vanquish the South and end the war. After the war Sherman angrily fought off attempts to draft him into political life, remaining true to his ideals as a soldier.

But it is hard to reconcile the brilliant general with his racist views on African-Americans and his prickly personality that alienated as many people who respected Sherman's keen sense of warfare. "A Soldier's Passion For Order" makes that attempt and does it quite well. Those interested in learning about the most complex of the Civil War Generals would do well to read this book.

I enjoyed this book for the information it provided. I onlyknew Sherman as the man who laid waste to the southeast, but foundthat there was much more to the man. This book presented all facets of the man. I was surprised that Sherman suffered from what appeared to be crippling self doubt at times, yet he seemed to be able to rise above this doubt.

I used to be quite a bit of a Sherman fan, and I still am. Unlike many others, he understood the concept of 'Total War', and this was what he was good at. Now, after reading the book, I don't hero worship the man, but I have a genuine respect for him because he has all too human traits that are recognizable in all of us. Marszalek has done everyone a good service with this book.

Marszalek's narrative of the life of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman focuses on order. It is Marszalek's contention that Sherman's early life left him with a lifelong fear of the disorganized, and that, for this reason, he strove to find and maintain order throughout his life. It is a compelling argument, and certainly worthy of consideration. Sherman WAS a stickler for order and discipline--his Civil War record testifies of that. Marszalek succeeds admirably in linking Sherman's earlier life to his later obsession with having things the 'right way.'

As a biography of Sherman, however, this volume falls short in many respects. Sherman's Civil War career is given only about 200 of 500 pages. The account is sparse, and seldom is enough detail given that anyone without a previous knowledge of Sherman's campaigns would be able to understand what is being narrated. The last 100 pages or so of the book are disappointing--instead of a detailed description of Sherman's later life, there is a rambling string of thoughts with little or no reference to very important events. Sherman's promotion to the rank of lieutenant general (and later full general), his appointment as chief of the army, and his post-war relationships with men such as Sheridan and Schofield are only vaguely alluded to, and are not actually treated as separate events. When describing Grant as the President of the United States, Marszalek expects the reader to be familiar with events surrounding his coming into the presidency. Grant's, Sheridan's, and even Sherman's wife Ellen's deaths are not described until the very last chapter, and then (with the exception of Ellen) with no more detail than the simple statement that they were dead.

Despite this failure of the latter part of the biography, Marszalek's work nevertheless is valuable. His analysis of Sherman's psyche is, for the most part, good (at least apart from the fact that nearly every early event in Sherman's early life is described as an 'omen' of things to come), and the argument he advances for why Sherman turned out the way he did is sound. Marszalek speaks at great lengths of Sherman's total war policy, but in this it seems, to me at least, that he is misunderstanding. His analysis of Sherman's military genius and the development of his strategy is admirable, but I do not agree with his labeling the advance on Atlanta total war. To me, at least, total war was the march to the sea, was the 50-mile swath of devastation left by Sherman's 'bummers' as they consumed everything of value in their path. Still, even if the label of total war is erroneously applied to all of Sherman's independent campaigns in 1864-65, Marszalek's examination of these campaigns, and examination what made Sherman proceed the way he did, is very thought-provoking.

I cannot call this the perfect work on Sherman, but I do believe it is good. Despite any other flaws, Marszalek is fair in his treatment of Sherman, and in that respect triumphs. In short, this is a good biography of a great man, and, even considering the disappointing last several chapters, worthy to be labeled good Civil War history.

In John F. Marszalek's Sherman, A Soldier's Passion for Order (New York, 1993), Marszalek describes Sherman's life from early childhood to his death in 1891. This book is an excellent source for discovering Sherman's ethics and values prior to the outbreak of the Civil War and how they influenced his behavior throughout the war, especially during his famous march. Marszalek does an excellent job in his portrayal of Sherman as: the adopted son who never felt comfortable with his foster family, a common officer, a failed businessman, and as the general who brought the south to its knees. Marszalek does an excellent job of portraying the entirety of Sherman. His book is well written and fully documented

Sherman is an intrinsically interesting character. Extremely bright but temperamental; either reviled or revered. A racist who did more to help blacks in that period than almost anyone else. You can't lose with a book on Sherman. However, the book left me confused about aspects of Sherman's personal life, which Mr. Marszalek treats too gingerly. Mrs. Sherman seems to be an absolute horror: she nags him constantly to become a Catholic; she refuses to leave her father; when she goes to Sherman's post, she leave a child behind to make sure that they will have to return to Dad. The military details are all there, and some insight into Sherman's breakdown, but that need to cling to a nagging woman is not explained. However, it's a good read, and good history. (Alan J. Jacobs

"Wars are not all evil; they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed; thunderstorms which purify the political atmosphere, test the manhood of a people, and prove whether they are worthy to take rank with others engaged in the same task by different methods." - Gen. William T. Sherman

As a casual student of Civil War history, i.e. returning to it periodically after bouts with trashier fare, I've heretofore lost sight of General Sherman in General Grant's shadow at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Even the commendable Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 failed to correct this failing. SHERMAN finally forced the man into my awareness.

This book by John Marszalek is an extensively researched, comprehensive, and solid summary of the General's life from boyhood to death. I would love to have seen what the late, great Shelby Foote could've done with the material, but that's neither here nor there.

SHERMAN includes all of the elements of the man's private and public life that you'd expect in a biography. What stood out for me were the elements that I never suspected: his sojourn in California from 1848 to 1857 both as a military officer and a private banker, his position as the first superintendent of the military academy that would later evolve into Louisiana State University, his eventual post-war falling-out with Grant, and his controversial views on race. Indeed, Sherman's personal view of slavery was akin to that of a Southern slave owner; he thought it consistent with the natural order of things. Furthermore, he opposed the abolitionists of the pre-war period believing their efforts conducive to the growing national disorder that eventually resulted in the Civil War. Sherman once said:

"The negro should be a free man, but not put on any equality with the Whites ... the effect of equality is illustrated in the character of the mixed race in Mexico and South America. Indeed it appears to me that the right of suffrage in our Country should be rather abridged than enlarged."

The chapters on Sherman's Civil War career make clear that he was significantly more successful as a war strategist than as a battlefield tactician as evidenced by his failures as a corps commander at Chickasaw Bayou (1862), as army commander when his Army of the Tennessee was repulsed at the north end of Missionary Ridge at the Battle of Chattanooga (1863), and as an army group commander at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (1864). His claim to fame is, of course, his brilliant march through Georgia and the Carolinas during which his forces occupied Atlanta and Savannah, GA, and Columbia, SC, unopposed after skillfully maneuvering enemy forces out of all three cities beforehand.

SHERMAN includes three photo sections, but no battlefield maps which otherwise might have been usefully illuminating.

What drove Sherman was his deep antipathy for disorder, whether it be military, social, familial, or political. He would've made the consummate military dictator if given the opportunity. He was a great commander and man for his time and place. In today's politically correct and "enlightened" times, he would be shunned.

"I look upon war with horror, but if it has to come I am here." - Gen. William T. Sherman

John Marszalek's book is a relatively concise biography of the man who is perhaps the most misunderstood of the Civil War General's. It is ironic that Sherman is villified by many in the South today. True, he waged war on the civilian population, but he did so in order to minimize battle deaths on both sides (his soldiers plundered the civilians, but they rarely killed any of them). And his belief in a "soft peace" and his anti-reconstruction views caused many in Dixie to tout him as a Presidential candidate after the war. Marszalek brings these and many other surprising facts to life. He also manages to get inside the head of the great but insecure soldier who first and formost sought order in his life. Overall, this is a first rate biography.